Your pension is made up of various parts, which have different increases applied to them. Whilst working for the Royal Mail Group you may have built up Pre 88 GMP and Post 88 GMP while you were contracted out of the Additional State Pension (ASP) between 1978 and 1997. This meant you paid lower National Insurance Contributions and instead of the ASP you would receive a guaranteed level of pension from the Scheme.
People who reached State Pension Age (SPA) before 6 April 2016 have the increases to their Pre 88 GMP and part of their Post 88 GMP paid by the government with their State Pension payments. Those who reached SPA after 6 April 2016 receive increases to all their Pre- and Post-88 GMP from the Scheme.
Our GMP projects are listed below:
Guaranteed Minimum Pension equalisation – GMPe
Previously, State Pensions were paid to men at age 65 and to women at age 60 – this is called the State Pension Age (SPA). Over time they were gradually equalised so that by November 2018, both men and women had an SPA of age 65. However, GMPs are still payable at age 65 for men and 60 for women.
A 2018 High Court judgment ruled that pension schemes are required to equalise pension benefits between men and women in respect of GMP earned from 17 May 1990 to 5 April 1997. Benefits accrued from the effective date of the Court’s ruling (17 May 1990) need to be equalised.
For more information about GMPe go to the What happens next? section or watch our GMPe animation.
Guaranteed Minimum Pension correction – GMPc
The Pensions Act 2014 introduced a new single tier State Pension for individuals retiring after 6 April 2016. Any increases for contracted out individuals, that used to be paid by the government alongside the ASP, are no longer paid. The Act confirmed the responsibility for paying the increases now lies with workplace pension schemes. This meant we needed to recalculate some members’ pension increases under the Scheme and this is known as GMPc.
If you were impacted, then we would have written to you.
Guaranteed Minimum Pension rectification - GMPr
We have also been checking the GMP part of members’ records against those held by HMRC. In some cases, differences have been identified and correcting these differences is known as GMPr. Calculating GMP is a complicated process, as it is broadly based on historic earnings figures, which were supplied to both the Scheme and HMRC by your employer’s payroll department. This information was typically provided at different times which could lead to differences when calculating GMP. Differences may also have arisen when GMPs were transferred from one scheme to another. This means that HMRC may have held a different GMP record for you than the Scheme. Where there were discrepancies, corrections have been made to HMRC’s records or to the Scheme records.
This project has now finished and if you have been impacted, we will have written to you.